by Donna
We are in the midst of doing a gluten-free experiment at home, trying to find the source of my husband’s stomach irritation. Rather than look at this as a period of deprivation, we are seeing this as a way to experiment and cook with new ingredients and in ways that we may not normally embrace. It was a great opportunity to try out gluten-free cake baking.
A few Christmases ago my mother-in-law gave me Harry Eastwood’s fantastic baking book, Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartache.
The book features creative ways to bake cakes, mostly drawing on vegetables for texture and inspiration. In flipping through the book while I was looking for a recipe for cake for Mothering Sunday (the fourth Sunday of Lent in the UK), I noticed the August Cake. In addition to using carrots and courgettes (zucchini) as well as elderflower cordial (a family favourite) the cake recipe was gluten free. I was sold. I had never baked using rice flour before, and was incredibly curious what it would be like. I also was excited to bake a cake for my mother-in-law from the book she gave me – knowing that lots of my friends have raved about how good the recipes are.
In pulling together my ingredients I *thought* that I was a bit short of ground almonds (almond flour) so I improvised. I have a Vitamix and just got the dry container attachment, so I decided to grind up some cashews to use in addition to the almonds (I happened to have some cashews opened and around needing to be used). The Vitamix was amazing, quickly pulverising the nuts into a fine flour – and suddenly I realised just how easy it could be to create flours for baking. I realised the bag of white rice flour was just so unnecessary – I could just pulverised my own white rice! The same with chickpeas. And tapioca. And brown rice. Baking this cake not only opened my eyes to the world of gluten free baking, but also to just how easy it is to bake well if you have the right equipment (like a Vitamix to help you to mill your own flours).
You don’t need a Vitamix to make this recipe. But you do need a bit of patience. Do not rush the creaming of the eggs and sugar. Really, it does take 10 minutes. This ensures the lightest and moistest cake possible.
I used a Magimix food processor to grate the vegetables. Again, you don’t need one. You just need patience and arm muscles and a grater.
My husband said this possibly was the best cake ever. Enjoy.
Ingredients
For the cake:
4 eggs
150g caster sugar
300g peeled and grated carrot
300g peeled and grated courgettes (zucchini)
zest of 6 oranges, finely chopped
150g white rice flour
300g almond flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
150ml elderflower cordial
For the icing:
200g unsalted butter, at room temperature
500g icing sugar, sieved
150ml elderflower cordial
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F
2. Using a spring form tin, place baking parchment over the base (this enables easier release of the cake). Oil the tin if it is not non-stick.
3. Beat eggs and sugar together for 10 minutes – I used an electric mixer. The colour turns almost white.
4. Add carrot, courgette, and orange and beat together again until well mixed.
5. Add flour, almond flour, baking powder, salt, and elderflower and mix together well (no flour pockets, just a cake batter).
6. Pour into tin and bake for one hour.
7. Remove from oven and cool on rack.
8. Make the icing – using an electric mixer, beat the butter until smooth and fluffy. Add the icing sugar and beat. Add sugar gradually until the buttercream is fully incorporated. Then add elderflower and beat together. You get a delicious elderflower buttercream.
9. Removed cooled cake from springform tin.
10. You don’t have to, but you can slice the cake in half at this stage to have two layers. If you do this, gently ice the top of the bottom layer, and then place top layer on top.
11. Fully ice the cake and sides.
12. Serve and enjoy!
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